A father is warning people of the perils of dissociative hallucinogenic drug DXM (dextromethorphan) as well as LSD after his son reportedly overdosed.
(Warning: One of the photos below depicts his son’s dead body in the morgue, and it might be disturbing to some viewers.)
Mike Stollings of Englewood, Ohio, posted the photo of his son, Jeramie Ratliff, in the morgue with a lengthy message about addiction and drugs.
“I'll spend the rest of my days on this earth racking my brain trying to figure out what I should have done differently,” he told WHIO-TV.
Here’s his lengthy post:
Lets take another look at how fun drugs are............... this is my son about an hour after the funeral home got him late monday afternoon. when he died he had been bleeding out of his ears and had blood in his hair and foam in his mouth. they were kind enough to clean him before we got there. his body was ice cold from being kept in a refrigerator. my cold dead son. father of a 10 month boy. grandson to 3 living grand parents. step-brother to 2. half brother to 3 son to 2 living parents and a step parent that helped raise him since he was a young child. all completely devastated. well little asher is too young to know what is going on but will live his life wondering what it would be like to know his dad. as many of you know jeramie was pretty open about his relationship with LSD. he was a little more quiet about his love for Dextromethorphan. despite the begging and pleading from me and many others in his family he craved the trip and was obsessed about it............
look i know that not everybody that takes drugs is going to die from it. but many do. jeramie thought he had it under control. he thought he was smarter than the drug and had more control than the drug. now he is in a refrigerator in a funeral home in englewood. now people are in transit from all across this country to say their final goodbye’s. now my family has to spend over $5000 in funeral expenses. now i will never be able to hike with him or ride dirt bikes with him. he will never be able to take his son camping.............those of you that use just for a little fun here and there. you don’t have to use but you like to party a little. think for a second about how there are those around you with larger mental issues. like jeramie, he was carrying some mental baggage that even i can’t comprehend. by partying with these people you encourage them and enable them to do it to use drugs as an escape. that is the every last thing people like this need. these people need actual help. these people need encouragement to heal in healthy ways. they need to feel genuine love and uplifting encouragement not encouragement to get high again. think about the influence you have on these people. think about the path of destruction being left behind.......people, learn from this. help make something positive from this tragedy. walk away from this lifestyle. find someone that loves you and ask them for help. don’t let this become you. don’t do this to your family. use our pain and anguish. learn from it. turn to someone you love. get help. if you do not have some you think you can turn to message me. i'll do all in my power to help you. it’s not too late to save yourself and your family from repeating this horror. believe me when i say you do not want to experience this and you do not want your loved ones to have to experience this anguish
He later says that people struggling with drug addiction should seek counseling. And he says peers shouldn’t enable this type of behavior.
“Just brutal, cold, reality. People need to see that. This stuff’s not just fun and games and feeling good and going out with your buddies. Too many times, it turns into this. People need to see that,” Stollings added to WHIO.
DXM is a cough suppressant found in many types of cough medicine---similar to PCP and ketamine (known as special-K). In high doses, it acts as a dissociative hallucinogen. The drug’s popularity has increased over the past two decades, primarily by teens looking for a cheap and easy high via cough syrup (Robitussin) and over-the-counter pills.
According to Erowid, a website founded in 1995 dedicated to psychoactive plants and substances, “a number of deaths have been documented due to the recreational use of DXM although a majority of these have been the result of products (such as Coricidin Cough and Cold) that combine DXM with other substances that become dangerous in high doses.”
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health states there have been five recorded deaths resulting from dextromethorphan.
“We report the deaths of five teenage males in three incidents in three states (WA, FL, and VA) who purposefully ingested large doses of dextromethorphan for recreational purposes and died as a result of the direct toxic effects of the drug,” the agency says.
(H/T - IJ Review)
